The Telltale Whine
by regertz
Summary: -A little Cicelyverse Poe ripoff...  -Buffy waits patiently for her newly souled Will's return from England  despite a few minor problems...


The Telltale Whine...

PG13

Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse

Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...

Summary: A little season seven Poe ripoff...while blocked on the other stories...

(You may want to read my Cicelyverse summary page to understand my Cicely story better...)

I am still Buffy Anne Summers...Buffy Summers...

You must know that...

I was only asleep for a moment, coming back from that long Patrol...After all that happened the other day, it was only natural I'd be a little pooped, nod off for a moment...Just a moment...When I woke and found that fool little nobody of a vamp who'd jumped me and ko'd me for a moment, grinning at me...

As if he expected me to be...

Grateful?...

I staked him, of course...Would a vamp have done that to her sire?...No...

No way...

I am Buffy...Human Buffy...Not...That other...

Not...Anne...

My senses were on edge...Naturally...I am the Slayer...And after all that's happened...It's only natural that my supersenses would be heightened...Strengthened...

Just nerves...

I couldn't be...No...

The Powers That Be couldn't be so cruel...Not when there's such cause for joy in my life at last...

My William has won his soul back, you see...Giles has confirmed it in England when William went to him there and is bringing him to me even now...And I have learned...The truth...

Courtesy Dawny's...My...Vengeance demon...

Well, former vengeance demon...She was human when she...

When I...

Who told Anya the story...Not able to conceal her chagrin over Spike's losing control to Will in Africa...And was forced by her, after Xander destroyed her pendant, with Giles' guidance by phone to Anya from England...To reveal the truth to me...

That I am...Was...Cicely Addams, London-born socialite...Queen of the 1880 London social scene in fact...

Secretly...Greatest Slayer of all Time up to that time...

And even more secretly...Loving wife of one William Soames Walthrop...aka William the Bloody...

As in..."Bloody Awful..."

For two tragic days...After which, in fear of his life, I turned to the Council...My Watcher...Who was only too happy to provide a solution for me in the form of Halfreck...

Who took my place, and drove him away...To safety I thought...Prayed...

But in reality...Into the waiting arms of Drusilla...Who'd been primed for his coming by Halfreck...

Someone dashing and romantic coming her way...If she'd just wait in the right place...

Yes, thanks to my dear friends...Good ole Giles and his truth spell...Willow, who accepted my poor Will's tale on faith when he came to them in London...I got the truth out of Halfreck...And when I learned the truth...The memories came flooding back on me...

And at last I knew...Why I could never bring myself to kill him...Why Dawny so instinctively trusted him, believed in him...Why I said...Why what I said to him that night at the bar...Hurt him so...

You're beneath me...

That night when William trapped within finally began to realize why this Slayer was so special...

Yes...I had...I have...Reason to rejoice...I have my husband back at last...He's coming to me now...

And so...I cannot be...

Anne...

I'm just a wee bit...Disoriented...

Shocked, really...

God couldn't be so cruel...

Anne is my counterpart...Mine and therefore Cicely's...Heck maybe even Dawny's...demon...

As Spike is William's and Angelis Liam's...

Spike told me about her once in the crypt...Hed sensed her during his mostly forgotten existence in Hell...And felt her straining at me...As all powerful demons champ at the bit, furious to be let out...During our times together...

But he didn't love her...Too much of William getting through, I guess...

He loved...Loves...Me...

Anne...Who would love nothing so much as to break out upon this world in my body...

But I am not Anne...If I were, could I talk of her so separately...Describe her as my personal monster...?...No...No more than Angelis or Spike could...

Yet...I am more than one...There is Cicely within me...And if Anne were released in us...She'd be fighting...

No...I was just out for a moment...

And my Patrol home went on just as usual afterwards...I saved three people and killed six vamps...

See...No demon would have done that...

And I saw myself in the store window along Main St...

Hollow-eyed, glaring strangely...But just upset...Case of nerves and completely understandable...

Of course...That stuff about reflections and vamps is as much hooey as the old bugaboo about churches...Unless their human selves believed in it...As Adam proved to us years ago...

Of course...You might think my savagely killing the now human Halfreck to be a point for Anne...But c'mon...

She murdered my husband in 1880...And was trying to keep us apart now...The real reason she came to Sunnydale...To finish the job...

So it was only natural...Human...That I'd want to take revenge...Just as I will on that maniac Drusilla...Soon as Will and I are remarried...

Call it a honeymoon activity...And really...We'll just be giving her peace...Setting her human soul free at last...

LA is a nice place for a honeymoon, you know...

But as to Halfreck...Yes, she pleaded in her native ancient Egyptian (former junior priestess sealed in her queen's crypt by order of her vicious philandering husband...No wonder she became a vengeance demon) for her life...Yes, I was pitiless when I trapped her...But...I didn't take her blood...

Only lick...cleaning the blood off my mouth after I tore her head off...If I were a vamp, I'd of drained her dry, right?...Especially after my rebirth...Right?...

Right...Anne is in Hell...

It must have been Cicely...My Cicely half...Naturally...She'd been Will's beloved...She'd seen his dead body before he rose...She'd died having his stillborn child months later...

Naturally she'd wanted Halfreck dead...And overwhelmed my Buffy scruples...

Using our strangely heightened Slayer senses...(Maybe our abilities have doubled, somehow?) to track the little bitch down in just an hour or so...

Perfectly understandable, right?...

Ok...There is the other thing...The thing I can barely comprehend myself...

But...I can see where my Buffy half could be capable of it...

She would have gotten the others all upset...Whining about my strange behavior...

Oh...Buffy...What's wrong with you!...What's that blood on your clothes?...My God, you've been bitten again, haven't you?...

Whine, whine, whine...What am I, her mother...?...Geesch...

Refusing to take my word for it that everything was fine...Trying to call Xander...Giles via the Council...When the greatest day in my life in a century...Certainly in this dreadful past year...Is about to dawn...

After all...She wasn't real...Not really...

And she...Well, not her...But the monks who made her out of energy...Killed my mom...

I'm sure of it now...It's all so clear...They wanted to bind me to her...Make me willing to die to save her...

Bastards...And that phony tie they created probably delayed my recognizing William...Who knows how much sooner we might have found each other if it weren't for...

Well, the bill is paid now...Without my taking a drop of her blood, I should point out...

And my artificial sister...Part of me, I remind you and therefore, mine to do with as I please...Is

at peace...

Probably back to her energy state...

And my mom...Revenged...

Perfectly natural that Buffy would want such a revenge...

Human...

Then they had to come...

It would have been fine...I had Dawny safely tucked away...

Giles would be bringing William with him direct from the airport...Carefully protected against the dawn, of course...

And I could have made them see...

Giles would understand...He'd been willing to sacrifice Dawn for me and the world...

And Will...Well, I'd have made him see...

But they had to come...Wanted to see us together when William came through that door...Human-souled...

Some people just have no sense of privacy or propriety...Would I have ever walked in on Xander and Anya when they were having a special moment of reunion...?

No way...

But I suppose they couldn't help it...

Just as I couldn't...

Though...I am Buffy...And Cicely...

And Anne is in Hell...

Not with us...

I love them...So I tried to keep things under control...

Would a vamp...Even a vamp demon fighting her two human souls...Have done that?...

But all the while I could hear my Dawny's voice...Whining away...

Buffy...Oh...Buffy...No...Please...

Oh God...You couldn't be so cruel...Mom, you wouldn't abandon me like this...

No...It's fine...All that's happened...

Was perfectly understandable...

And my William, human-souled as he is...Will understand...

As I pointed out...I did try...

But they were mocking me from the start...I could see the suspicion in their eyes...

Anya confused, sensing something wrong...

Despite my clever application of a new scarf to hide the latest bite scar...(Not that that little fool of a vamp ever really did any damage)...Even Xander sensed...Something...

Where was Dawn?...they kept asking...Deliberately chipping away at me...At my self-control...

The self-control I was employing strictly for their sakes...Because I love them...So much...

Her voice rising in my ears...They must have heard it...

Mocking me...Torturing me...

Finally I couldn't take it anymore...

"Stop it!..." I screamed at their grinning faces...Mocking me...

Downstairs...! I cried...

Racing to the cellar...They...Foolishly, foolishly, Xander should've known better...Following me...

Under the rug...Lift up the boards, under the cement!...Here!...Here!... I cried, pointing...

"There's something...Under the floor...?" Anya looked at me...

Xander gingerly lifted the rug...The boards were clean but the cement was still wet...

He found...And screamed in shock...

"It's that whining voice...I'll never get it out of my head!..." I screamed...

"Buffy!..." Xander gasped in horror, staring at me...And Dawny's remains buried in the floor...

"Run, Xander!...She's transformed!..." Anya cried...

"No!...Stop!..." I screamed... "It's not true!..."

So I had to kill them...You understand...

After a century of suffering...I couldn't let my William be alone...Just because Xander and Anya had some foolish notion in their heads about me...

It was a shame...Yes...And I regret it...

But I am Buffy Anne Summers...Buffy Summers and Cicely Addams united as one...But not Anne...Not dominated by my demon...

And will prove it to you...To all of you...

That I am worthy of my William...Not evil...Not contaminated by evil...

It's sunrise in an hour...And Giles will bring William to me then...To stay safe in my cellar through the day...While he and Willow try some new spells...In hopes of allowing us that daylight ceremony I always wanted...

I'll go out to meet them...Poor Will, he'll be all wrapped for safety...I will go out to meet them...In the sunlight...And then they'll know...

You'll know...


End file.
